


Roommates

by orphan_account



Series: The Various Living Conditions of Keith and Lance [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Marriage Proposal, Multi, good friends all around, keith and hunk are good friends, keith and shiro are good friends, lance is a wee bit stressed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-17 03:17:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10585302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Keith is happy for once and not quite sure how to deal.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I have decided to make a sequel to my other work, Neighbours. You don't have to read it but it talks about them getting together and there are a few references to it in this (nothing major though). Anyways, I hope you enjoy this. Keith and Lance live together! They are happy! Kinda! Yay!
> 
> Also, watch out for swearing and little innuendoes, if those things offend you then don't read this.

09.22.17

If you were to ask the Keith Kogane From Last Summer where he saw himself in a year he would probably have said something about school. That’s because the Keith Kogane From Last Summer had a grand total of one friend, a job that he hated, and had decided to go to college even though every instinct that he had told him that it wasn’t the right thing for him to be doing with his life. 

If you told Keith Kogane from last summer that his annoying downstairs neighbour who he was (not so) secretly in love with actually liked him back and that they now lived together and his neighbour wasn’t actually that annoying and made him eggs every morning he would have laughed in your face. Then he would have gone off and complained to his singular friend because Keith Kogane From Last Summer was sensitive as fuck.

Despite the how unlikely Keith’s current situation may have seemed a year ago, it was happening. Keith From Right Now was lying in bed next to his boyfriend who was still asleep and just… looking. Not in a creepy way, more in an “It’s still early and I don’t want to get up and there’s nothing else to do” sort of way. And at that moment there wasn’t a single thing he would change about his life.

Keith sighed and figured that he was feeling Happy. Happy wasn't really something Keith had felt before, in the past, he was usually Stresses or Sad or Dead Inside.

Ever so slowly Lance, his boyfriend, opened his eyes and looked over at Keith. They smiled at each other for a while before Lance yawned and asked what time it was. “6:50,” Keith told him, sitting up and checking the time on his phone. 

Lance groaned “Do you have work today?” He asked.

Keith shook his head “I work Sundays to Thursdays, you should really know this by now.”

“It’s like 5 am. Don’t expect me to remember anything.”

Keith laughed a bit before lying back down next to Lance. “Do you have work today?” He asked.

“Yes, as always.” Lance said, sighing a bit “Wanna come with me?”

“Is that allowed?”

“No, but they really couldn’t care less. And I’ve been telling my students about you.”

Keith laughed again. “What kind of things?”

“Good things,” Lance assured “Like that you’re the lead singer of a punk rock band and we met while you were on tour. It was hard for you to leave the band, but there are some things a man just has to do when love is involved.”

“Do you really think I would give up my life of rock and roll to settle down with a nerdy college professor?” Keith said, rolling his eyes.

“Ok, Ok, I didn’t lie that much to them. But they will be sorrily disappointed if you come to class without your motorcycle.”

The motorcycle thing had become a bit of an ongoing joke between Keith and Lance. A week after they had gotten together they were at a cafe and had been approached by an actual biker (he was probably lured by Keith's bright red motorcycle jacket) who started to talk to Keith about a bunch of things he didn’t understand. Keith didn’t want to seem rude so he played along, smiling and nodding at all the right moments and even replying to the biker’s questions using some of the jargon he had picked up from earlier in the conversation. Lance found it hilarious; Keith swore never to wear his motorcycle jacket ever again (he wore it the next day.)

“Alright, I’ll come, but only so that your kids know how much of a liar you are,” Keith said with a smirk. 

“I have never told a lie in my life,” Lance said, laughing, and got out of bed. “Were you aware that it’s anniversary today?” he asked.

Keith nodded. “How long has it been? A year?”

“That’s right. I’m gonna make you pancakes to celebrate,” said Lance before heading off to the kitchen.

After a while, Keith rolled out of bed and threw on a shirt before joining his boyfriend in the other room.

***  
“Righty-O, class, this is Keith. I brought him here so that he won’t be lonely on his day off. Also, I needed help bringing in equipment because I have no muscle.” Keith and Lance were standing in front of a small class, Keith with a few boxes in his arms. Keith sat the boxes down on Lance’s desk as the other man started going over his lesson plan. 

Keith zoned out for a while before he heard Lance calling out his name. He blinked a few times and turned to him with a smile on his face.

“Can you pass out the spectroscopes babe?” Lance asked, earning a few whistles from the class which he ignored. Keith nodded and opened one of the boxes revealing what looked to be a bunch of mini telescopes. He looked at Lance for confirmation that these were the right items and after seeing him nod Keith started handing them out.

When he was done Lance explained what they were used for and started a demonstration of some kind, which Keith didn’t pay much attention to. He had never really done well in classroom settings, preferring to use his hands over his brain. He was ready to spend most of the class lost in thought when he felt a tug on his shirt.

“Hey, you look bored. You should try this too.” Lance said, letting go of Keith’s shirt once he got his attention. He handed Keith one of the tubes and showed him what end to look through.

“Ok everyone, can anyone tell me what these are used for?” Lance asked the class.

A kid in the back raised their hand and explained that if you pointed one of the spectroscopes at a light source you could find out what elements it was made of by matching up the lines of colour.   
“Perfect answer!” Lance exclaimed as he opened another box “So, let’s give this a try.”

Lance took out a strange contraption with a light bulb in it and placed it on his desk. He then gave Keith a stack of papers to hand out while he got it set up. By the time Keith came back the lightbulb was glowing. 

“So the piece of paper Keith just handed out has the lines of common elements found in stars. You have to use this sheet of paper and compare each element to the lines that show up when you look at this bulb. If the lines are the same it means that the bulb is filled with that type of gas. Also whoever tells me the right answer first gets to ask Keith a deep and personal question.” Lance told the class, shooting Keith a grin.

Keith did not grin back. He instead shot Lance a look and raised the spectroscope to his eyes, aiming it at the bulb. Looking through it was weird, but pretty cool. It was mostly black, but there were a few brightly coloured lines. He looked through the tube a bit longer, tuning it and watching as the lines rotated. 

After a while, Keith heard a student tell Lance what element was in the bulb and Keith took the tube away from his eyes. “Congratulations, you get to ask Keith a question. Make sure it’s one he’ll be embarrassed answering.” Lance said, practically glowing.

Keith loved Lance and couldn’t imagine living without him, but he really was a little shit sometimes.

“Er, OK,” The student started “Umm, what are you afraid of?"

The kid sounded as nervous asking the question as Keith felt answering it so he didn't object to the question like he would have if they had been outgoing. He figured he might as well answer the question and get the experience over with for both of them.

So, what was Keith afraid of? Not much. He had built up a bit of a thick skin over the years so normal things like heights and spiders didn't bother him. The thing that really kept him up at night had popped up recently, just after he and Lance moved in together.

Keith was afraid of losing control. Of things falling apart. His life getting increasingly worse until he couldn't do anything to stop it. Keith was afraid that his newfound happiness was temporary and in a few months, he would be back to being Sad or Stressed. Lance was really the only reason why his life was so good and Keith knew that sooner or later he'd fuck up or Lance would realise that Keith was actually a pretty shitty person and find someone new.

Of course, there was no way Keith would actually say that in front of a group of kids he barely knew so he thought for a while and decided he would say he was scared of snakes. It was an old childhood fear of his and still applied a little bit so it wasn't completely lying.

Once he answered the student's question Lance made that face and muttered something along the lines of "You aren't afraid of my snake, Keith."

Keith spluttered a bit and Lance cackled, taking out another bulb. “Same thing everyone, but with a different element!”

By the end of the class Keith had been asked if he wanted children (yes, eventually), who his best friend was (Takashi Shirogane, otherwise known as Shiro. They had been friends since Keith was a teenager), if he actually rode a motorbike (he didn’t), and what he did for a living (drove a bus). He also learned that Lance knew the names of every single one of his students and that you could observe the universe expanding by looking at stars through a spectroscope. 

Keith had to admit, Lance was a pretty great teacher. He was engaging and took the time to actually get to know his students, things which most of Keith’s teachers has lacked. He had taken most of his college courses online and actually wondered if the reason he had hated it so much was because there wasn’t anyone to interact with. Still, even if he had taken a physical course his class would have been huge compared to Lance’s so it probably wouldn’t have been as fun.

Lance’s best friend, Hunk, had gotten him his current job, and Keith really did like it. He found driving cleared his head and when it got dull he’d make up stories about the passengers. Plus, it didn’t require him doing anything job-related outside of work which gave him lots of free time. He was especially grateful for this when Lance would come home with a bag full of papers to mark. While Lance was swamped with interesting work that he loved Keith was free to do what he wanted as long as he spent some time doing dull work that he liked well enough.

Soon enough the classroom was empty and it was just the two of them. Lance fell back into his chair, letting out a long sigh as Keith walked over to him.

“You ok?” Keith asked, taking a seat on Lance’s desk.

Lance nodded “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just hard to be that high energy for that long.”

Keith frowned a bit “Lance, you’re always high energy. You have more energy at 3 am then I do at noon.”

“Yeah, but that’s around you. Like, I know you, I like being around you. And we talk about things other than red-shifted stars.”

Keith thought for a moment before glancing at Lance’s chair “Ok," He said "So just to let you know I would totally be giving you emotional support right now but do you think we can get another seat like yours and play bumper chairs?”

Lance’s face it up “What are you talking about, that’s the best kind of emotional support there is.”

09.23.17

Keith’s days off usually went like this: He’d wake up before Lance, lie in bed reading or staring at the ceiling until he’d wake up, the two would go into the kitchen and Lance would make breakfast as Keith packed Lance’s lunch (it was usually dinner leftovers so it wasn’t hard but he knew Lance appreciated it.) Lance would leave for work and Keith would putter around the house until around noon when he’d usually go out with one of his friends. He’d get home around three and relax until Lance got home, usually an hour later. They would lie around on the couch for a bit talking about their days then go to the kitchen and make dinner together. After eating Lance would do some marking and Keith would help him if he could, or mess around on the internet if he couldn’t. It was nice to have at least two days a week where he could do absolutely nothing and not feel bad about it. 

Before, while he was still in college almost all of Keith’s spare time was spent doing school work which he hated. It had been Lance who convinced him to drop out, and Keith was forever thankful. 

There were so many things Keith owed to Lance. 

Since it was Saturday and one of Keith’s days off he had planned on sleeping in. Lance only had one class to teach on Saturday and it was at noon so there wasn't any rush for him to get up. Except for the fact that his phone had decided to ring at 6 in the morning.

Keith groaned and sat up, the blood rushing to his head as he did so. The sound of his phone must have woken Lance up too because he rolled over and asked who was calling at such an ungodly hour.

“It’s Shiro,” Keith told him as he checked the caller ID.

“Urg, fine. Go talk with your amazing friend.” Lance said, pulling his pillow out from under his head and covering his ears with it.

Keith smiled fondly and picked up the phone saying, “Shiro, dude, it’s like 6 in the morning. What do you want?”

“I’m going to propose to Allura!” Came Shiro’s voice, sharp and excited from the other end of the line. 

Keith let out a small shriek before putting Shiro on speaker and shaking Lance. “Lance, Shiro and Allura are getting married!”

Lance took the pillow off his head and shot up screaming, “Congratulations Shiro! That is literally the best thing I’ve heard in my life.”

You could practically hear Shiro shake his head “God, no, I’m just proposing. There’s no guarantee that she’ll say yes.”

“What are you talking about?” Lance asked “You guys are pretty much the ultimate power couple. If I had to choose two people to repopulate the planet it would be you and Allura. Also you two love and support each other so much it's scary.”

Lance was right, Shiro and Allura had been dating for almost three years and Keith was pretty sure that they had gotten into a serious argument maybe twice. And when they did fight they both had such amazing conflict resolution skills that they came out of it even closer than before. Not to mention the fact that they both looked like they came out of a clothing catalogue. 

“I’m just nervous,” Shiro said.

“I get that,” Keith said. If he was the one proposing to Allura he’d be nervous too.

“And the whole process of marriage is just… I don’t know… weird? Like I’m going have to make all these arrangements and meet her family and isn’t Allura actually like a princess somewhere? I’ll have to look into that. Like, we’ve talked about it a bit and I know that she wants to get married, but what if I mess up something or offend her dad or drop the ring or stutter? And who do I even invite? You and Lance are a must but I've only known Pidge and Hunk for a year and-"

“-Shiro, buddy,” Keith cut in “You have to take this one step at a time. How are you going to propose to her?”

“Today, we’re going to a park. The leaves are changing and I thought it would be nice.”

“Ducks!” Lance exclaimed “Girls like ducks. Take her to the duck pond.”

“Um… ok?” 

“Trust him, Shiro, he’s really great with the ladies.” Keith joked, making Lance hit him with a pillow.

“Shiro, I have three sisters. Trust me with this one.”

“Right,” Shiro said “Ducks. Er, Keith, can you take me off speakerphone?”

“Sure thing,” Keith said, shrugging at Lance and switching the call back to normal.

“Ok, so Keith,” Shiro said once “You and I have been friends for years and I just… I really value you and I don’t think I would be where I am today if you weren’t there. I don’t even think I’d have the courage to actually do this if you weren’t in my life supporting me so I was wondering if you’d be my best man? I know things like this usually get arranged after the engagement but I want to go into this knowing that my best friend is by my side.”

Keith agreed instantly. The two chatted a bit more before Shiro had to go and Lance started looking like the curiosity would kill him. After saying their goodbyes Keith hung up the phone and turned to Lance.

“I’m going to be Shiro’s best man!” He exclaimed.

“Are you surprised about that?” Lance asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Ok, not really,” Keith admitted, “But be happy for me, my best friend is getting married!”

Lance grinned and smothered Keith in a hug.

***

“Allura and Shiro would make wonder children be honest.” Hunk said. He and Keith were sitting outside his work eating sandwiches while Hunk was on break and Keith had told him the news about Shiro the first chance he had gotten. Hunk had squealed and immediately called Pidge who had called her brother, one of Shiro’s old friends from school, who had probably called every single person Shiro had ever met ever. Keith felt a bit bad about ruining the surprise, but Pidge and Hunk had sounded so happy when they found out that he forgot about the fact that it probably wasn’t his place to tell them.

Over the past year, all of Lance’s friends and all of Keith’s friends (or more like, Keith’s one friend and his girlfriend) had met and hit it off making a rather large, tight-knit group. There were also a bunch of weird connections that they had discovered, like the fact that Pidge’s brother and Shiro knew each other or the fact that Keith’s old coworker was actually Allura’s distant relative. Keith was a bit worried that if he and Lance broke up he’d lose all the friends that he’d gained, the group would break in two once again and all the friendships that had been built over the past year would be ruined, but when he thought about it, it didn’t seem likely that a group that had become so close over such a short amount of time would fall apart so quickly.

And, of course, there was the fact that Keith really, really, didn’t want to break up with Lance. The past year had been actually happy, stable. Keith still wasn’t used to it, all his past relationships had been short lived and even when he was a kid he was rarely in one place for a long time. People came and left and Keith wasn’t quite sure what to do when they didn’t.

Even if Keith wasn’t used to it, he wanted that happy stability in his life. He wanted to be one of those old couples who've been married for 40 years and still like each other. He wanted grandchildren that would show up at Lance and his house once a month to drink all their milk and then leave. He wanted to leave flowers at Lance’s grave after a long fulfilling life with him because Keith knew that watching Lance die would be infinitely less painful than seeing him alive and with someone else. Keith wasn’t sure if he was capable of a life like that, but god he wanted to be. 

“Are you ok bud?” Hunk asked after Keith had been silent for a bit too long.

“Yeah, sorry,” Keith said, snapping out of his thoughts “I was just thinking about how nice it is that you and Pidge have grown close to Shiro and Allura.”

“Yeah, it really is,” Hunk said, smiling “Like I said, those two would have the most magnificent children.”

Keith nodded as he took the last bite of his sandwich. “Shiro’s gonna call we once he’s proposed and I’ll tell you the verdict. Or more like, when the wedding’s going to be. And also, if he calls to tell you can you act surprised? I don’t know if he wanted me to tell everyone.”

“No problem dude, I totally get it,” said Hunk as he checked the time “My lunch break’s over soon, I should head back,” he told Keith.

Keith nodded and he and Hunk dealt with their garbage before Hunk wrapped him in a bone-crushing hug.

“Bye Keith, tell your stupid boyfriend to call me, it’s been several million years,” Hunk called once he was at the door. Keith laughed and gave him a wave before Hunk disappeared inside the building.

***  
Shiro called just before Lance got home. Keith had been waiting all day so he picked up on the first ring.

“Shiro! How did it go?” He exclaimed.

“Not well,” Shiro said, a bit out of breath.

“Shit man, what happened?”

“Well, I never actually got the chance to propose. Or at least, not properly… One of Allura’s friends was there and we kinda spent the whole time at the park together. I wanted to do it when we were alone so I figured I’d wait until another day.”

“Makes sense.”

“Ok, so I had the ring in my pocket, right? But they aren’t really the best pockets and there was this one point when Allura was balancing on this fence-type thing and asked me to join her and I wanted to look all cool and suave so I did, but of course, something had to go wrong and I slipped. And the ring… fell out. Then she saw it and her friend saw it and I tried to explain but they started laughing.” Shiro gasped, he hadn’t breathed once during his story. 

“Shiro, where are you? Why are you out of breath? Is Allura with you now?” Keith demanded. Shiro had always been like a cool older brother to Keith so imagining him fucking up so badly unnerved him a bit. He knew that sometimes Shiro could be a total mess, but actually seeing him like it was strange.

“I’m hiding in our bathroom,” Shiro told him “After it happened I just sorta… ran. I don’t know if Allura tried to stop me but a few minutes ago she knocked on the door and told me that she wanted to talk.”

“It could be a good kind of talk,” Keith supplied.

“It could, but it she could also... I don’t know, something bad. And I really don’t want her to see me like this.”

Keith sighed “You really should go talk to her, if you don’t it will make things all weird. You guys are living together for goodness sakes, are you going to sleep in the bathroom or something?”

“You’re right, you’re right,” Shiro admitted “I’m going to take a shower and calm down then go talk to her. Can I call you when we’re done?”

“Yeah, of course,” Keith told him. Shiro said goodbye one more time then hung up.

Once the call ended Keith suddenly felt like he was hit by a bus. He flopped down on the couch and let out a long deep sigh because for some reason everything seemed like it had just become shit.

Allura and Shiro were having problems, something Keith didn’t know was possible. He had always looked up to Shiro, and he had always tried to make his relationships like Shiro and Allura’s because they were the happiest couple he’d ever seen. Watching them going through a hard time and seeing how Shiro was absolutely broken by it made Keith remember all his shortcomings, both personally and in his relationship with Lance. 

Keith wasn’t used to being happy, he was perfectly fine living an OK life while his best friend's became increasingly perfect. Then Lance came along and Keith was happy and it was ok because he knew what happy people looked like, but the happy people weren’t happy anymore and Keith couldn’t shake the feeling that he was doing something wrong.

After a while, Lance came home, and although he had come in cheerful his face immediately fell once he saw Keith.

“Hey babe,” Lance said, running up to him “Are you ok?”

Keith nodded as Lance moved him into a sitting position before taking a spot next to him on the couch. He then allowed Keith to slump into his lap and started playing with his hair.

“Well, you obviously aren’t,” Lance said, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Keith sighed. “It’s just, Shiro really messed up the proposal today.”

“Ah, that sucks,” Lance said.

“I know, but it’s not just that… like, Shiro’s practically a god, right? He’s so perfect at everything he does and seeing him screw up really makes me feel weird. And it makes me think, like, if someone like Shiro can mess up a three-year relationship there’s absolutely no way that I can be in a relationship longer than that. Things have gotten good this past year, and honestly, it’s mostly because of you and what if I fuck things up really badly and all this just…” Keith gestured with his hands to show things falling apart.

“Do you really think you and I aren’t going to work?” Lance asked.

“No, it’s just, there’s only a matter of time until you know that I’m actually a total screw up. And if Shiro and Allura can’t work is there any way that we can?”

“Keith,” Lance sighed “I know you’re messed up, I’m messed up too. But I love you, and not just the bad-ass dude who looks like he’d drive a motorcycle and has terrible hair. I love the Keith who gives people wine in coffee cups and I love the Keith that can’t focus in school and I love the Keith that wears shoes inside even though it’s totally disgusting. Being with you is like being sucked into a black hole, I mean it’s scary and amazing and everything that you take for granted is compromised in the most mind-boggling way and there’s no way I could even fathom leaving you. I want you to understand that you are quite literally the only thing in the universe to me when I look at you shit just… fades. I want to spend years figuring you out and falling in love with all the new pieces that I find and I want you to know that there’s no possible way that I could find something that makes you any less perfect. You’re you, Keith, and I love you, every single bit.”

Keith was never good with words, especially compared to Lance so he just lay there, in Lance’s arms, hoping that he understood that everything Lance said applied to him too. If they were to break up Keith was almost positive that his world would be ripped apart, which is why thinking about it made him get all melancholy. The only person in his life who had gotten even remotely close as Lance was was Shiro, and even with him, Keith had taken a long time to open up. In a year Lance knew what it had taken Shiro six to find out, and there was the added benefit of being able to kiss Lance and enjoy it.

After several minutes of sitting in silence, Lance asked if Keith was feeling better. Keith nodded and stood up, taking Lance’s hand and leading him to the kitchen where they started preparing dinner, pretty much silently. That was another reason why Keith liked Lance so much, he knew when to talk and when it wasn’t really needed. For the first few weeks of their relationship Keith had actually been worried that spending too much time with Lance would tire him out (social interaction sucked the energy out of him like a vacuum,) but he was surprised to learn that Lance was strangely understanding when Keith needed him to shut up. Shiro and Lance were, again, the only people in his life who really understood the need for silence.

Soon enough dinner was ready and Keith and Lance sat down to eat. It was only then that Lance started talking again, and once he started he wouldn’t shut up. By the end of dinner, Keith knew how long it took Lance to get to work, the amazing project one of his students had done, the and fact that Lance’s lunch container had leaked and they really, really, needed to get new Tupperware. Keith didn’t mind at all, he liked Lane’s voice and it made him feel like he was more involved in his boyfriend’s life than he actually was.

Finally, dinner was over and Lance got up to clean the kitchen while Keith went back to the living room to check his phone. He stared at it blankly for a moment before realising that he had missed a call from Shiro. Keith immediately unlocked his phone and called him back.

“Keith!” Shiro exclaimed, having picked up on the first ring.

“Shiro!” Keith replied with the same enthusiasm.

“Everything’s going to be ok!”

“It is?”

“Yes,” Shiro started “You were right, it was a good talk. After I took my shower I found Allura and we had a conversation. She apologised for laughing and she said the reason why was because she had been talking to the friend that came along about proposing to me and was just hit by the cliche ridiculousness of it all.”

Keith let out a soft chuckle “So everything’s alright then?”

“That’s right. We’ve set the date for next October.”

“Congratulations man, I’m so happy for you. And not just because I told Hunk and everyone that you two were engaged and if that hadn’t worked out it would be kinda awkward to explain…”

“You little shit! Best man status revoked.” Shiro exclaimed.

Keith gasped in fake-offence as Lance came out of the kitchen with a curious look on his face. “Sorry Shiro, I gotta run. Lance is here. Congratulations again though, I really am happy for you,” Keith said into the phone.

“Thanks, Keith. And I was kidding about best man thing.”

“I figured, talk to you later, Shiro,” Keith said with a little laugh. He then put down the phone and turned to Lance.

“I think everything is going to be ok.”


End file.
